Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Author's Note: Long time no update, huh? Well, let me explain.
Alright. So, on Tumblr there's this upcoming thing where all us authors post long AruAni stories. Like multi-chap fics. Well, before I let myself participate in this glorious month of angst and fluff and suspense (boy do I have the stories planned for you), I am forcing myself to finish most of my unfinished tri-parts or other left open stories. This one is the loosest end, but I'll also add more to Commandeered. Actually, that really was no explanation because I am lazy. I just wanted to let you guys know about what's upcoming.
Forgive me if any of this is extremely inaccurate. As I have never done this before, I only can speak through reading tabloid articles and preventive bulletins on the subject. As for their miraculous ability to hold their breath for a while, I credit their enhanced physique from training. Exercise is a key factor in lengthening the ability to hold one's breath. Enjoy!
"Annie!"
There was the sensation of falling, loud screams, and then silence. Annie was immersed in total darkness with the only sound being the roar of blood in her chilled temples.
Other than the silence, the first thing that struck Annie was the cold.
Growing up in her small village, she was used to the cold. Many nights she had been forced to sleep by the ashes of the fire with nothing else but a frayed blanket when it was too cold to even venture for more firewood.
But this cold was a whole new sort of cold. It struck her exposed skin with the ferocity of sharp needles, leaving behind a fiery, red searing sensation across his pale flesh. The cold even stabbed at the warm skin of her stomach and chest that was covered by layers upon layers of clothes, threatening to crush her pounding heart in an icy, impersonal grip. The cold was so extreme that for a moment Annie didn't know what was going on.
Until the water finally reached her, caressing her skin with chilly licks.
The freezing liquid violated every part of her exposed body, tearing across her widened eyes and plunging deep into her throat. Even more fire erupted across her warm throat and in her shock she inhaled another cold mouthful while releasing a belated scream. She clamped her mouth shut, but the delayed reaction still allowed several breaths of ice to trickle down her throat. Annie desperately tried to still the burning coughs, knowing subconsciously her fate if she were to open her mouth again.
The freezing water surrounded her entirely, pressing down upon her warm head and shoulders like an iron paperweight. Her thoughts and actions turned slow and sluggish, as if the blood coursing through her veins and skull had frozen too.
I…I…
Annie was vaguely aware of the need to breathe, but the fire in her extremities and skull temporarily outweighed the burning in her chest.
The blonde forced her stinging eyes in a tight glare. The water itself was murky and unclear with no clear sense of surface or ground. Dimly in the back of her mind, the girl's distracted brain noted the deceiving difference. From the bank, the water had seemed too pure and clean. Annie squinted upwards, but streaks of light refracted off the cleared ice and bounced about in the water, further distorting the top from the bottom.
I…fell…in… The girl faintly echoed in her mind.
I…Which is the sur—surface…? Where's Ar—Armin…?
Annie kicked her legs violently to try to restore feeling to her frozen limbs, but the combined shock and weight of her drenched, heavy clothes soon fatigued her. The fire in the girl's lungs finally erupted into chaos as her feeble attempt at survival finally stole the last of her precious oxygen. Annie slowed her frantic kicking and felt her tired limbs float weakly in the water. She cracked her stinging eyes faintly, watching with detached blinks as her hands and fingers bobbed in front of her, yet she could no longer feel them. Compared to the previous searing of pain, this sense of numbness was a pleasurable substitution.
Annie's eyes flickered close as she finally allowed herself to think of her aching chest. For a moment, she tried to pretend that the burn in her lungs was enough to engulf her entire being, enough to warm her back into action. Only a few, eternity-lasting seconds were needed before she realized the failure in that logic.
She could feel herself being pulled down by the weight of her soaked layers, clinging to her skin like ship anchors. The descent was gradual, almost peaceful, as if she were finally settling down after a long flight.
Eventually, even the fire in her chest cavity settled down to a muted prickle. A feeling of numb peace swept over her tired limbs and soon she was even barely conscious of her own limbs and lower body. It soon became too much effort to even open her eyes, but the girl was already disillusioned with the murky, blinding nature of the pond and preferred the faint, disappearing memory of the obsidian bank and Armin.
Armin…
She hadn't heard him fall and the only vibrations in the water had been her own thrashing. Still, during her descent and her realization that she was going to die, the thought of the blond beside her had brought her a slight scrap of comfort. Enough to allow her accept the calmness of the situation with a numb, placated expression. She supposed it would be selfish to wish Armin's death for the sake of her own convenience.
Relaxing the very last ounce of tension in her still body, Annie allowed the beautiful, deadening darkness to flood over her consciousness.
Armin felt firm fingers wrapped around his midsection one instant and the next he was face first in the freezing snow. He quickly scrambled out of Eren's protective grasp, managing to catch one last glimpse of Annie's face before she disappeared through the broken, obsidian glass. She was terrified, her features contorted in reflexive expressions that Armin had never before seen on the girl.
"Annie!" Armin's voice cracked from the cold and he jerked towards the shattered spot the girl had fallen through.
"Armin! Stop!" Eren's warm hands grabbed one of Armin's various layers, jerking the reckless blond back with another powerful pull. Armin fell backwards back on the snow bank, wriggling out of Eren's grip in his desperation to get to the hole.
"Armin!" Eren lunged for the boy one last time, yanking the blond from the snow bank by his shoulders.
Eren's last shout finally broke the younger boy from his focused trance. He blinked at the worried brunet in front of him and gestured at the silent hole beside them.
"We have to save Annie now," Armin insisted, daring anyone to say anything different. He suppressed a gasp when he finally noticed the panicked light flicker into the other students' eyes. Of the trainees gathered around the pond, he was the first to react. He was the first to understand the danger Annie was in. Even Eren, who had reacted fast enough to save his friend from a similar fate, was blinking uncertainly at the blond.
"Armin, I'll try to ge—"
"No," Armin interrupted in a far louder voice than he intended. Even the blond himself reeled back slightly at the forceful tone in his voice. What am I doing? Every second I waste is another moment that Annie's in danger. "I can do it." What are you doing? The boy's subconscious began to attack itself. You're clearly the weakest one here. You can't save Annie—you'll just end up drowning too.
You couldn't even save yourself.
But that was so long ago. I've learned how to—
You'd risk Annie's life and your own to prove a point?
"I can do it," Armin announced again, overriding the waves of self-doubt churning through his stomach. His fingers strayed towards the clasps on his coat.
Reiner shook his head at the idea. "Let Bert or me handle it, Armin," the large blond countered, making his way towards the hole in the ice with a nervous side step. Their bickering had wasted nearly thirty seconds of Annie's precious oxygen, but they could not see her trashing through the murky, dark water. They had no way of knowing where Annie was or if she was still breathing.
Armin's trembling fingers wrenched off the buttons on his coat and he shrugged the heavy garment off of his shoulders despite several loud shouts from the gathered teens. Instantly the frost attacked the once warm underside, but he brushed it away with a steadying breath. The cold he felt now was only minor compared to the looming ice underneath the surface. He couldn't afford to be dragged down by his heavy coat. He hoped that he could reach Annie before the true cold set in, otherwise they'd all be in trouble.
"I…I've done this before," he answered with a hesitant frown.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"Armin—this is suicide!"
"Someone go get Shadis!"
Ignoring Jean's and Connie's shouting, Armin glanced back towards Eren, who watched him with a hooded expression.
"If you don't come back up in thirty seconds, I'm coming in after you," the brunet responded in a low murmur. Armin nodded with a humorless smile before taking a deep breath. Squeezing his eyes shut, the blond carefully set himself on the edge of the hole and pushed off, breaking through the calm, black water with another shocked gasp. Soon the boy's brilliant blond hair disappeared from sight, leaving the gathered teens to stare expectantly at the spot in total silence.
Armin expected the cold, but this was worse than he had ever imagined. He instantly regretted removing his coat, but he knew that it would lessen the load he had to support and would keep his limited energy closer in check. Besides, it only would have taken milliseconds for his coat to be completely permeated by the water as well. Icy water raced down his exposed skin, threatening to stop his heart from the shock. The boy didn't want to even begin to think of the plunge's effect on Annie since she was even less prepared for it.
Armin peeled his eyes open, staring through the dark water with narrowed slits. For a brief moment he panicked when he couldn't find Annie, but the heavy stone in his stomach lightened when he caught a flash of her golden hair in the refraction of light from the surface.
The sight of the girl nearly made the boy fatally gasp. Her light, blonde strands of hair floated around her calm, pale face like a golden halo.
She looks so serene and peaceful…
Partially feeling guilty for interrupting the beautiful image, Armin reached a trembling limb towards the girl, catching her icy wrist in his own frigid palm. He curled his deadening fingers around her thin wrist, willing heat to jump from his shuddering digits to her unmoving body. Armin tore his reluctant stare from the girl's face, relieved to note a faint bubble leak from her nose. She was still alive, but each tainted breath she took brought her closer to death. He squinted at the glare above him, craning his neck in the dark, thick water. Memories and terrors from his past struck him as his legs slowly kicked in the direction of the light.
I—I have to be right. If I swim in the wrong direction, we're both dead. I have to reach the surface. Armin felt a swell of fire rise in his chest as his precious breath ran out. His last bubble of oxygen burst in his chest, lacing his lungs with pain. Armin squeezed his eyes shut, forcing his sluggish limbs to move faster to get Annie to safety. It felt like an eternity in hell had passed, but Armin figured he had only been underwater for less than twenty seconds. Annie had only been submerged for about a minute or so, but it was still far too long.
Suddenly Armin broke through the surface of the pond, gasping in the frigid air with greedy gasps. Annie bobbed to his side, pale and still but alive. Armin coughed weakly, gulping down as much air as possible as the freezing waves from his assent lapped against his parted lips and chin.
"Armin!"
"G-get A-Annie," the boy stuttered. Reiner and Bertholdt complied immediately, reaching towards the girl and gently pulling her from the water. Frozen droplets fell and showered the blond, but he was too relieved to feel their icy path as they traced down his chilled face. The tallest recruit bundled the tiny, lithe frame close to his chest. Christa, who had shown up with her freckled guardian during the initial plunge, started to shrug off her coat, but Ymir stopped her, shedding her own jacket and handing it to Bertholdt with a stern expression. The tall boy tightened the still warm garment around Annie's shaking frame.
Eren smiled weakly at his friend and carefully stepped towards him. "Let's get you ou—Armin!"
In his eagerness, the brunet accidentally broke through the weakened spot where Armin had fallen previously, nearly toppling in the frozen pond himself if Jean hadn't yanked him backwards. The shorter brunet cursed loudly as a large piece from the side of the bank chipped off with an ominous hiss and knocked Armin back underwater. The blond managed only a faint yelp before his head vanished beneath the surface again.
No!
"Dammit!" Eren seethed, abandoning all safety and dropping to his knees, shoving aside as much ice as he could to get to the submerged boy. The brunet pounded on the slick surface with furious grunts, trying to break up the heavy sheet of obsidian. For a brief, horrible second, they could see Armin's pale fingers and palm pressed up desperately against the underside of the glassy ice, but Eren couldn't reach him.
Sasha's gaze darted towards Bertholdt, who was still cradling a now semi-lucid and shivering Annie close to his chest. The ginger quickly reached towards the blonde's makeshift skates, all but tearing the boot from Annie's foot in the process.
"Try this," she offered, shoving the bulled blade towards the brunet.
Eren grunted in thanks and continued to chip furiously at the ice until he had a clear path of vision of Armin.
"There!" The boy was frighteningly pale in comparison to the dark, swirling water around him. He almost looked like a corpse, sickly and glowing in the deep blue water. He had since stopped trying to push himself free from the ice above him.
Both Connie and Mikasa gripped the back of Eren's shirt as the brunet leaned forwards, fishing with an outstretched palm in the frigid water for a scrap of Armin's clothing. Eren felt his numbing fingers brush against Armin's icy skin before he finally managed to grasp the boy's shirt. With a low grunt of effort, Eren hauled the boy up to the surface of the pond. The blond's clothes were heavy and bloated from the water and he had stopped his desperate thrashings by this point.
Jean stood at the other end of the hole and helped the brunet gingerly lift the thin boy from the water. The two placed him carefully on the layer of coats Christa and Sasha had spread out.
"He isn't breathing," Connie broke the silence first, a nervous lilt tainting his voice.
"Dammit," Eren cursed again, surveying his incredibly still friend. His lips were tainted blue and his eyes were closed. The brunet could find no tell-tale signs of life in the cold, corpse-like body.
"He must've inhaled too much water the second time," Marco supplied nervously. "Maybe we can get it out of his sys—"
Before Marco had time to finish, Eren had already dropped to the ground, kneeling by Armin's side. Mikasa shrugged her way through the semicircle of terrified children, squatting on the other side of the boy.
Eren held his hands over the boy's chest but hesitated, staring at his numb, shaking fingers. This felt too much like a memory from the past.
Mikasa's steady hand reached for Eren and squeezed his fingers encouragingly. Together they pressed down on Armin's chest with furious, quick paced compressions. Eren's gut twisted when he felt things under his heavy hands crackle and slide, but he refused to lessen the impact. After counting in low huffs under her breath, Eren pulled his hand out from underneath Mikasa's grip. Gently pinching the boy's nose shut, Eren took a deep breath and exhaled the slightly warm and humid oxygen into his friend's lungs. Immediately he returned to compressions, muttering louder under his breath after each cycle. His determination and fury directed towards himself made each compression dangerously deeper and heavier, leading to more crackling along the boy's rib cage.
By this time, Annie was finally starting to awake from her stupor. Although she was still numb throughout her extremities and most of her lower body, the girl managed to focus her half-lidded gaze on the unfolding actions. Hushed whispers from the other teens caught her ear, but her mind was too sluggish to make much sense of the words. Each sentence or question resonated in her ears hopelessly distorted.
"What…mean…done this before?"
"Come….wake up!"
"Why…so determined….save Annie?"
A hiccup-y cough and cry of success claimed Annie's groggy attention. Her eyes rolled back to Armin and Eren, watching as the blond suddenly jolted, coughing up a mouthful of pond water with a wheezing gasp. Eren pulled his hands immediately away from the boy, grinning widely as the blond slowly resumed breathing in tentative, shaky gasps. The blond's eyes were still shut and he was unconscious, but he was alive for the moment.
Eren shrugged off his own coat, tucking the warm garment around the boy's abdomen and shoulders. After a hesitant glance in Eren's direction, Mikasa even unwound the scarf around her neck and wrapped it gently around Armin's exposed skin.
"We need to get them both back to camp," Ymir interrupted, surprisingly assuming the voice of reason for the group. "Right now."
Sensing Eren's exhaustion from the CPR, Reiner stepped towards the blond and scooped him up carefully. "I'll carry him back. You're too tired."
Eren nodded in thanks, trailing behind the large blond as they set off towards camp. Connie and Sasha led the way, brushing away snow and attempting to make as clear of a route for Reiner as possible to quicken the journey.
Annie could feel the breath rumble in Bertholdt's chest as he took each labored step. His embrace was warm and secure and Annie felt herself drifting away in his arms. As his vision on the back of Reiner's head slowly faded away, Annie let the gentle sweep of darkness caress her again back into oblivion.
She wasn't conscious enough to witness Jean, the last of the teens to leave the pond bank, bend down and retrieve her discarded make-shift skate. She didn't notice his bemused expression as he slowly followed the others after Marco's curious glance backwards prompted him into motion.
Was that alright?
I think you guys are due for a happy, fluffy final chapter, aye? Thanks for reading :D